The idolatry of youth culture in worship

We’ve discussed the issues of contemporary vs multi-generational worship many times on this website in recent months (see for instance the Worship Wars series) and were interested to find this video on the Gospel Coalition website. The video starts an interesting discussion.

Worship leaders often talk about the tension between performance and worship. It’s easy to get drawn into the spectacle of music in the church, with our primary examples and role models being professionals—often young, beautiful, and enormously talented.

In this third of three video discussions with Kevin Twit and Isaac Wardell, we talk about the idolatry of youth culture and how it has shaped our worship. Worship culture has followed the lead of culture generally, becoming obsessive about youth, perpetually introducing new worship leaders while introducing fresh songs, styles, and ideas. We’re perpetually innovating, chasing the demand for being new and cutting edge.

How can worship be shaped in such a way that it confronts these obsessions? How does the music industry shape our expectations for worship leaders in particular and church leaders in general? What are some of the contrasts between the attitude of an aspiring artist and an aspiring servant. Wardell talks a bit about the difference between a “church musician” and a “worship leader,” which I find to be a really helpful distinction.

As the conversation unfolds, we discuss the possibility of a counter-culture—of worship as a feast, rather than a concert or a lecture.

Jason Chollar put us onto this video. He asks the following questions that you might like to consider in the comment box below:

Are we servants?

Are we trying to be cool?

Should every generation be represented on the platform?

Are we in “camelot” mode?

Are we expecting more of music than it was meant for?

Who is the “worship leader” anyway?

Concert Hall, Lecture Hall, Banquet Hall, …. is any one of them “right”?

Are we undermining the message of the gospel with our music, musical style?

I have a difficult time with the freedom that is taken with the great works of Music.(It’s like re-arrainging Van Gogh, Michaelangelo etc. I also wonder the effect that “playing by ear” will have on music in general. If “playing by ear” is valued above virtuosity, then why study music at all?
As an older”musician”, trained classically, it seems that the Church has joined the youth culture of “instant fix”; not quite the message I learned to value over the years.